Sea floor sediment sampler



n. 9, 1965 c. J. SHIPEK 3,165,931

SEA FLOOR SEDIMENT SAMPLER Filed June 22, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet l FIG. 2

INVEN TOR. (:4 RL .1 SH/PE'K BY I.

A rm 7 United States Patent 3,165,931 SEA FLOOR SEDEMENT SAMPLER Carl J.Shipelr, 3639 Fla Pica St, San Diego 6, Calif. Filed June 22, 1962, Ser.No. 204,656

6 Claims. (Cl. 73425.2) (Granted under Title 35, US. Code (152), see.266) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by orfor the Government of the United States of America for governmentalpurposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.

This invention relates to devices for obtaining samples of the oceanbottom sediment layer. More particularly, it comprises a housingpreferably formed by two semicylindrical sections, one contained withinthe other when armed and adapted to be rotatively closed by aninterconnected spring. The spring action is triggered by an actuatingpad coming in contact with the ocean floor which results in interactionof the sections to provide a cylindrical enclosure automatically housinga sediment sample at the point of ocean floor contact.

Various designs of devices have been employed for the purpose ofobtaining ocean bottom samples such as the orange peel type, clam shell,grab samplers and many others. As a general rule most of these deviceseither fail to pick up the sample intact or carry it to the surface in adisturbed condition as a result of water currents leaking through it.The lack of sharpness of the jaws, the slow speed of operation, andfinally the inadequate enclosure itself will provide a mixed-up samplefrom the jaw closing action or result in a washed-out diluted versioncaused by the water currents leaking into the enclosure as the sampleris raised by cable to the base ship on the surface.

The object of this invention is to overcomethe disadvantages pointed outin the preceding paragraph.

The general purpose of the proposed sampler is to provide a device forscooping up undisturbed samples of sand, mud, clay, ooze. or combinationof the same from the ocean floor.

Specifically, the purpose of this sampler is to pick up benthonicorganism samples in their related environment and undisturbed foranalysis and study at the surface.

Another object is to provide a sampler that can be lowered by wire ropefrom a surface vessel to the ocean floor.

Still another object is to provide a sampler which will automaticallyclose when reaching the sampling position on the ocean floor.

Another object of the design is to provide a device for cutting orslicing the sample segment from the ocean floor in contrast to pushingor forcing the sediment into the sampler in a rather mixed up ordisturbed condition.

Another accomplishment of the particular design is its close fit orthorough enclosure for ascent to the surface.

Another purpose is to provide an efilcient enclosure for sedimentsamples incorporating its own power source from the helical action of acoiled spring, manually armed at the start by the operator andautomatically triggered at the point of operation on the ocean floor.

Another object is to provide a sampler having an enclosure portion witha solid cover to shield olf currents, and provide an opening only on thelower side toward the sea floor wherein a half cylinder sampler sectionrotatively supported by said enclosure is snuggly fitted in said openingand adapted to automatically slice a sample from the sea floor andconcurrently provide the door for closing said opening and therebyencase said sample within the enclosure.

With these and other objects in view, as will hereafter more fullyappear, and which will be more particularly ice pointed out in theappended claims, reference is now made to the following descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of the sea floor sediment sampler closedafter a sampling operation and ready for hoisting to the base ship onthesurface;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation ofthe same;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view, from the bottom or sea floor side of thesampler, showing it open and armed for sampling; and

FIG. 4-is a fragmentary view of the inter-related components.

Briefly the sea floor sediment sampler 11 comprises a cover or housingportion 12 having an opening in its base. A sampler section or jaw 13 isrotatively supported by said cover in the base opening and is adaptedupon rotation to carve out a sample of the sediment and concurrentlyclose said base opening and encase said sample within the enclosureformed by the cover and jaw.

The preferred form of sampler illustrated herein employs two halfcylinders comprising the cover 12 and sampler section or jaw 13. Thehalf cylinder cover 12 is open along its axial plane on its bottom sidetoward the sea floor. The top side of the cover is a solid enclosurewhich diverts water currents away from thesampler as it is raised to thesurface by cable 37 attached to the cover anchor ring 36.

The sampler section or jaw 1?: preferred herein is a half cylinderslightly smaller than the cover 12, 'and is rotatively supported by saidcover and is designed to fit contiguously therein when the device isarmed for sampling When the jaw 13 has been rotated.

as shown in FIG. 3. during the operation of cutting out a sedimentsample, the cutting edge 17 terminates against stops 1% FIG. 4 so thatthe two half cylinders are juxtaposed to form-a complete cylindricalenclosure as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 and automatically encase thesediment sample within said enclosure. With the contiguous fit betweenthe cover 12 and jaw 13 the adjacent edges 15 and 17 are not only soclose together that they prevent water currents from meeting the halfcylinder cover 12 and the jaw 13 and are pre-loaded under helicaltension. The springs 14 are mounted on bosses 16 which in turn are fixedto the rotative jaw or sampler portion 13 and journaled in the bearingplates 41 which are fixed to cover 12. j

A torsion plate 20 carrying the spring pins 23 may be adjustedcircumferentially on the bosses 16 to vary the helical spring tensionbetween the cover 12 and jaw 13. When the desired tension is obtainedthe nut 34 is tightened to securely fix the torsion plate 29non-rotatively to the bosses.

The power linkage between the cover housing 12 and the sampler section13 as a result of the helical tension on the springs, is directedthrough pin 22 on cover 12, to spring hook 21, spring 14 to hook 21 andpin 23, thence to torsion plate'2tl and washer 35 to boss 16 which isfixed to sampler section or jaw 13. The spring tension related above isadjusted when the sampler is closed as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.This is accomplished by a torsion wrench on the plate 20 when thesampler is closed FIGS. 1 and 2. In practice, it is preferred to use acylindrical sample 8 inches in diameter and 8 inches long. When "3 c)armed, the helical spring tension is adjusted for a torsion ofapproximately 35 foot-pounds. After the operation, when the jaw 13 hasrotated through 180 degrees and is against the stops 18, a torsion ofapproximately 10 footpounds is left on the spring 14 in order tomaintain the sample sections closed during hoisting to the surface.

In order to arm the device for sampling, a wrench is attached to the hexend 24 of boss 16 FIG. 2 and rotated clockwise until the sampler section13 is within the cover 12 as illustrated in FIG. 3 at which point thecatch 26' would be swung about pivot 29 to engage the cutting edge 17 ofjaw 13. Thus the samplerv would be armed and its operational releasecontrolled by keeper mechanism.

The keeper mechanism comprises a catch 26 and arm adapted to engage inthe slot 2'7 until released by lifting the linkage 32 as a result ofpressure on pad 31 from the sea floor sediment. In operation, as thesampler is lowered by cable 37, when it reaches the sea floor the pad 31and linkage 32 are automatically lifted until the catch arm 39 isreleased from the slot 27 and spring 28 pulls the top of arm 39 to theright thus moving catch 25 to the left and disengaging itfrom edge 17 torelease the sample'section 13 for rotation counterclockwise.

The spring 34 acrossthe keeper linkage operates to maintain the pad 31-in its armed position as illustrated in FIG. 3, to prevent accidentalrelease. The safety screw 33 is provided to lock the sampler in itsarmed position by bearing against the horizontal arm 49 of the keepermechanism to secure the catch arm 39 in slot 27.

What is claimed is:

l. A sea floor sediment sampler comprising a cylindrical housingassembly including a semi-cylindrical top in combination with asemi-cylindrical bottom portion, said bottom portion being rotativelymounted within said top to form a semi-cylindrical assembly open alongits axial plane, axial bosses fixed to and extending outwardly of saidbottom and journaled in said top so that said bottom is located in androtatively supported by said top, coiled springs positioned on saidbosses and supported under helical tension at one end to the top and theother end to the bottom through said bosses, a catch for keeping saidbottom located in said top in an armed condition, and trigger meansactuated by contact with the ocean floor for releasing said catch sothat the semi-cylindrical bottom will rotate in relation to said top,said rotation concurrently slicing a sediment sample and forming anopencentered enclosure for encasing said sample in a relativelyundisturbed condition.

2. A sea floor sediment sampler comprising a top in the shape of a halfcylinder open along its axial plane, a bottom half cylinder slightlysmaller than said top and open along its axial plane, said bottom beingaxially supported by said top and rotativcly encased therein when open,spiral springs under helical tension connecting said top and bottom sothat said bottom may be rotated into closed position relative to saidtop and form an assembled cylindrical enclosure, and trigger meansactuated by sea floor contact for releasing said helical tension so thatthe bottom half cylinder can slice a sediment sample from the sea floorand encase it within said cylindrical enclosure for hoisting to thesurface said axial support for said bottom being provided externally ofthe bottom whereby said enclosure remains open-centered for encasingsaid sample in a relatively undisurbed condition.

3. A sea floor sediment sampler comprising a half cylindcr top incombination with a half cylinder bottom rotatively supported axially byand snuggly within said top whcn armed for sampling, power means forrotating said bottom to cut out a sediment sample from the sea floor,said rotation being in relation to said top so that said top and bottomwill close to form a cylindrical enclosure for encasing said sample saidrotative support for said bottom being provided externally of the bottomwhereby said enclosure remains openentered for encasing said sample in arelatively undisturbed condition.

4. A sea floor sediment sampler comprising an enclosure portion providedwith an opening on its lower side toward the sea floor, a half cylindersampler section rotatively supported by said enclosure and snugglyfitting said opening, power means interconnecting said enclosure andsampler section for automatically rotating said sampler section uponcontact with the sea floor so that said sampler section willautomatically slice a sample from the sea floor and concurrently providea closure for said opening and encase said sample within said closuresaid rotative support for said bottom being provided externally of thebottom whereby said exclosure remains open-centered for encasing saidsample in a relatively undisturbed condition.

5. A sea fioor sediment sampler comprising a cover portion open only onits lower side toward the sea floor, a sampler section in the form of ahalf cylinder open along its axial plane, said sampler sectionrotatively supported by said cover portion and contiguously fitting theopening therein, spiral spring means interconnecting said cover portionand sampler section for closing the sampler upon contact with the seafloor so that said sampler section will automatically slice a samplefrom the sea floor and concurrently provide a closure for said coveropening and encase said sample within the enclosure formed by the coverand sampler section said rotative support for said sample section beingdisposed externally of said sample and said spiral spring means beingcarried by said rotative support, whereby said center portion of saidenclosure remains open for permitting said sample to be enclosedin arelatively undisturbed condition.

6. A device as described in claim 5 wherein the sample section rotativesupport comprises axial bosses fixed to said section and journaled insaid cover portion and said spring means comprises a coiled spring underhelical tension and mounted on each boss, said springs connected at oneend to said cover and at the other end to the sample section throughsaid boss.

3. A SEA FLOOR SEDIMENT SAMPLER COMPRISNG A HALF CYLINDER TOP INCOMBINATION WITH A HALF CYLINDER BOTTOM ROTATIVELY SUPPORTED AXIALLY BYAND SNUGGLY WITHIN SAID TOP WHEN ARMED FOR SAMPLING, POWER MEANS FORROTATING SAID BOTTOM TO CUT OUT A SEDIMENT SAMPLE FROM THE SEA FLOOR,SAID ROTATION BEING IN RELATION TO SAID TOP SO THAT SAID TOP AND BOTTOMWILL CLOSE TO FORM A CYLINDRICAL ENCLOSURE FOR ENCASING SAID SAMPLE SAIDROTATIVE SUPPORT FOR SAID BOTTOM BEING PROVIDED EXTERNALLY OF THE BOTTOMWHEREBY SAID ENCLOSURE REMAINS OPEN-CENTERED FOR ENCASING SAID SAMPLE INA RELATIVELY UNDISTURBED CONDITION.